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In the animation I want rotation locked to a single local axis like when you press R then X twice to rotate.

An example would be a wheel rotating on an axle.

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  • $\begingroup$ possible duplicate of blender.stackexchange.com/questions/12211/… $\endgroup$ – user1853 Sep 11 '14 at 5:15
  • $\begingroup$ Then what is the question? You already wrote how to do it. $\endgroup$ – someonewithpc Sep 11 '14 at 8:52
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    $\begingroup$ @someonewithpc They said they want it locked, presumably so it can only rotate on that local axis and no other. $\endgroup$ – Ray Mairlot Sep 11 '14 at 9:14
  • $\begingroup$ It says "when you press r then x twice". That locks rotation to the local X axis. $\endgroup$ – someonewithpc Sep 11 '14 at 9:31
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    $\begingroup$ @someonewithpc that locks the rotation for that rotation operation only. In the object panel there are permanent transformation locks, but I am not sure if they are local or global. $\endgroup$ – Ray Mairlot Sep 11 '14 at 12:36
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You can simply use the Copy Rotation contraint:

  • Create a new empty;
  • Select your object, switch to Constraints tab in Properties Editor, add a Copy Rotation constraint, set the empty as Target, toggle Offset, set Local Space as the owner space (current object).
  • Then you control the rotation by rotating the empty.

enter image description here

enter image description here

Tip: For quick constraint creation, you can also first select the empty, then holding Shift to select your target object, then ShiftCtrlC -> Copy Rotation.

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I would add an armature to the object. The armature only needs to have a single bone that is aligned to the objects axis and you can parent your object to the bone without bothering with weight painting. The bone can then easily be animated on it's axis and if you use Euler rotation you can have one f-curve to adjust the animation.

enter image description here

Transform locks can also limit the possible rotations if you only want to rotate on one axis.

enter image description here

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I found a very simple solution by playing around.

Go to the timeline. Insert a Delta Rotation Keyframe at the start.

insert keyframe

Then go to the object panel and chance the Delta Rotation values of the particular axis you wish to rotate. And then just add a new Delta Rotation keyframe. There you have a very simple animation of a rotation on a single axis.

rotation keyframed

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